We’ve seen our fair share of strange drag races, but this drag race that KUHL Racing TV prepared is one to soothe the Toyota lover’s soul. It’s a battle of the Toyota SUVs and MPVs and the Toyota Raize aka the Perodua D55L is part of the race. Where do you think the Raize will finish?

Surprisingly, the Raize managed to finish third despite the little turbocharged 1.0-litre engine dispensing only 98 PS and 140 Nm. It lost out only to the Toyota Harrier and the Toyota Alphard.

This is easily explained, though the Raize has the smallest power output out of the 5 cars, the tiny SUV also has a relatively good power to weight ratio. With 98 PS and weighing only 1,050 kg for the all-wheel-drive version, the Raize’s power to weight ratio measures 93.3 PS per tonne.

The Alphard, for example, used in the video has a 3.5-litre engine that dispenses 301 PS and 360 Nm. It weighs 2,090 kg so the power to weight ratio measures at 144 PS per tonne. Hence why the MPV managed to finish second despite being one of the heavier cars in the race, notice how the MPV was the last off the line.

Meanwhile, the Prado finished a distant last due to its poorer power to weight ratio. Despite dispensing 163 PS, the SUV weighs 2,050 kg. Based on our calculations, the power to weight ratio on the Prado is 79.5 PS per tonne. It is lower than even the Raize! 

Let’s not talk about how far ahead the Harrier managed to go since the SUV does have the advantage of a hybrid engine after all.

The Perodua D55L will be coming to Malaysia soon with 3 variants to offer. Still no hint on what Perodua will officially name the D55L, we speculate it could be either the Nautica, Kembara, Impax, or Lasaq. Perodua had plans to launch the SUV by March 2021 but the Covid-19 pandemic might push the debut back. 

As it is, the D55L has already been spied on Malaysian soil at the Road Transport Department's Putrajaya office possibly undergoing its Vehicle Type Approval (VTA) process in anticipation of the launch. 

Meanwhile, the D55L is already slotted to launch in Indonesia as the Daihatsu Rocky in May 2021. Our counterparts over in Indonesia will even get the benefits of a 6-speed manual transmission which we will likely miss out.